Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
ploy used by deniers, she suggests that the
reports of increased thaw are from scien-
tists in search of funding. Her views (show-
ing that climate change denial is an inter-
national problem) would be laughable if
the threat from the release of methane hy-
drates from permafrost were not so great.
Of all the factors that could cause rapid,
cataclysmic climate change, one of the
most powerful could very well come from
the release of methane deposits, causing
what the British scientist E. G. Nesbit calls
a “thermal runaway.” This process begins
with warming, which begets thawing in
permafrost, which releases methane, which
begets more warming, causing even more
melting of permafrost and the release of
still more methane—an accelerating, cata-
strophic sequence.
a significant part of the sea level rise. Float-
ing sea ice in the Antarctic winter (which
has no bearing on sea level rise) is increas-
ing in area, and this is often cited as an
indication of cooling. In winter the sea ice
surrounding the continent is about the size
of Europe. But recent temperature mea-
surements in the Southern Ocean indicate
that the sea is actually warming at a rela-
tively rapid rate (compared to mid-latitude
oceans). According to a study by the British
Antarctic Survey in 2009, the increased area
of ice may be due to the ozone hole above
Antarctica, which cools the stratosphere.
The hole in turn has led to strengthened
surface winds and larger storms, creating
cold winds that emanate from West Ant-
arctica. As the ozone hole is slowly repaired
(perhaps by 2100) because of the successful
global campaign to halt release of refriger-
ant gases, the production of winter sea ice
will be reduced and additional warming of
the Antarctic should occur.
myth
: “The evidence suggests that the
Greenland Ice Sheet is actually growing on av-
erage.”
This is the view of Richard Lindzen
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy. As a member of the National Academy
of Sciences, Lindzen is arguably the most
distinguished of the global change skep-
tics. The field evidence, however, suggests
that not only is the ice sheet melting but
the melting zone along the edges of the ice
sheet is expanding northward and toward
the interior of the ice sheet.
myth
: The “West Antarctica Ice Sheet com-
prises only a small portion of Antarctica”
and therefore is a minor contributor to sea
level rise (according to James M. Taylor of
the Heartland Institute).
Statements like
Taylor's are apparently made in the hope
that no one will check their veracity. The
sea level rise potential in the West Antarc-
tic Ice Sheet is a hardly minor sixteen feet.
myth
: Antarctica is gaining ice.
Well, yes
and no. Land ice is decreasing in volume by
around 163 billion metric tons (180 billion
short tons) a year, which is responsible for
myth
: The rate of melting of the ice sheets is
slow and only presents a problem to humans
on a millennial scale.
The observed rate of
